Baltimore County residents, crews battle the elements

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Snow in Randallstown. (Pete O'Neal)

Copyright 2014 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Copyright 2014 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Copyright 2014 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Copyright 2014 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Copyright 2014 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Copyright 2014 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

The first significant snowstorm in Maryland in three years brought traffic to a crawl and salt trucks on an overnight mission: http://bit.ly/1ap1dJQ

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Baltimore County snow wrap up

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ROSEDALE, Md. - Charles Fisher was like many in Baltimore County on Tuesday.

He was out at The Home Depot in Golden Ring getting supplies in preparation for Tuesday's winter storm, which was expected to drop anywhere from 6 to 10 inches of snow across the county.

"I was told by my wife I wasn't prepared," he said.

Fisher wasn't alone. Grocery and hardware stores all over the county were flooded with customers needing everything from milk, bread and toilet paper to shovels, sleds, ice scrapers and ice melt; much of it was moving fast off area shelves.

Among those stores was the Lowe's hardware store in White Marsh. An employee there said customers have been coming in since early Tuesday morning.

"It started as soon as we opened the door," the Lowe's employee said. "We had some customers lined up out there and it's been steady ever since. We had people waiting in their cars for us to open up. We popped the doors a little early try to let them in and get them taken care of."

Baltimore County spokesman Lauren Byrd said all of the 2,600 miles of roads in the county have at least been salted. However, she urges residents to be patient when it comes to having their streets plowed, especially as road conditions are expected to worsen during the course of the evening commute.

In all, Baltimore County officials said they have about 500 people utilizing 400 pieces of equipment in its battle against the elements, which as of 5 p.m. was becoming more difficult with temperatures falling and wind gusts increasing. At the same time, county police said they have been lucky in that there have only been about a dozen accidents reported Tuesday; most of which occurred on side streets.

"It is extremely important for everyone to stay off the roads if they don't need to be out there," Byrd said. "The conditions are continuing to deteriorate due to extreme temperatures and wind. Currently we are only concentrating on primary roads. Our plows are trying to keep them open and clear. Once we get them open then we can get to the subdivisions and side streets."

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ABC2 News' Brian Kuebler and Ron Snyder contributed to this story.

Copyright 2014 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.